Hey! Got a mobile and want to know what the weather’s like? All you have to do is leave your phone in your pocket and look at the sky. It’s failsafe.
Enough flippancy though. What if you want to get actual weather forecasts on the go, from anywhere in the world, in Celsius OR Fahrenheit, hmm? This is where Motorola hopes to tempt you, having signed a deal with Paragon Software Group to preload its Handy Weather application on the MOTO Z8 and Z10 handsets.
You pick a location, and then set how often you want the application to update its forecasts (for example, every four, eight, 12 or 24 hours). Worried about data charges? They’ve thought of that - it only uses 7kb of data per city forecast. More application makers should provide this kind of information.
There is a caveat, mind. If you buy a Z8 or Z10, you can use Handy Weather free for three months, but you’ll then have to subscribe for a year for “an additional fee”. Looking on the application’s website, I think Paragon charges $10.95 for subsciption renewals, which over the course of a year isn’t too bad.
Mobile phones with some high-profile, non-mobile branding seems to be all the rage with manufacturers and retailers at the moment, what with Samsung’s Armani phone, and Carphone’s Ted Baker and phones. Now Motorola’s got in on the act with its new Ferrari phone.
While most deals like this feature new or original handsets, Motorola’s gone for the easy option and basically slapped a Ferrari badge on a reasonably-old handset, the Z8 RIZR.
To be fair, the Z8 isn’t actually that bad a phone but this new limited edition isn’t exactly going to set the world alight. As well as a Ferrari logo plastered on the side, the Moto Z8 Ferrari Limited Edition, comes with two pre-loaded Ferrari videos, registration to the official Ferrari website, custom Ferrari wallpapers and ringtones and direct internet links to magazines like Top Gear, Auto Express, GQ, Esquire and Autosport. And like the standard Z8 release, you also get a bundled copy of The Bourne Identity movie.
Sadly, this won’t even be out in time for Christmas either, as it’s not going to be out until early next year from Ferrari and Motorola’s main retailers. Oh well…
Linkboy – the customisable shortcut app for UIQ smartphones – has just been given an update.
The app works on all UIQ 3 smartphones from Motorola (e.g. the Z8) and Sony Ericsson (e.g. the P990). It’s a cool app which lets you set up as many as 45 shortcuts to frequently used tasks, which are displayed on your smartphone’s standby screen.
For P990 users, they’ll be glad to hear that Linkboy now works perfectly when their device is in Flip Closed mode, making loads of features accessible.
In the new version (1.40), there’s better Activity options for setting up your shortcuts display, linking of shortcuts with numeric buttons and a much faster speed for loading shortcuts to contacts.
You can check out the improvements and download the app here.
Pocket Picks was lucky enough to be invited to a special round-table hosted by Motorola this week, featuring some of its senior execs and key content partners.
The purpose was to talk about ‘The Future of Mobile Entertainment’ and how mobile technologies are creating new opportunities for the industry. Among those present were representatives from Motorola itself, EA Games, Universal, Wecomm and Shozu.
The key issue was the current exponential growth in consumers using mobile services and content like picture sharing, downloading games and accessing multimedia content, all because operators and manufacturers started offering one-click access to services.
Think Shozu embedded on a new Motorola handset or Sony Ericsson’s Cybershot, or even operators’ one-click access to their portals. As Andrew Till, Motorola’s Senior Director for Applications and E2E solutions said: ‘Single click access to features makes all the difference.’
But you’re reading this wondering so what? What does it tell me about what to look forward to? Well, according to the panel, the big thing for 2008 is going to be… [drum roll]… ‘User discovered content.’ And what’s this?
Continue reading ‘Motorola discusses vision for mobile entertainment in 2008′
